before the throne of mercy; and so the truths which belong to their peace, are for ever hid from their eyes.

Let us turn from this monster of wickedness who thus was secretly conspiring against the Lord and against his anointed, to the peaceful scene in Bethlehem. "When they heard the king, they departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was." The first appearance of the star was on the night of the nativity; since which time it had disappeared, even during their long and dreary journey over deserts where we may suppose such a guidance had been most welcome, even admitting the assistance they might derive from their previous knowledge of the stars and their bearings. We may imagine with what emotions of gratitude and delight, they once more hailed its appearance. Accordingly we read, that when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.' Or (to come nearer to the sense of the original,)" they rejoiced with a transport of joy" They had seen this remarkable phenomenon in their own country, now distant many a league. Hence it served tenderly to revive in their memories the delights of that spot, which no traveller in a foreign land ever thinks of but with sacred emotions; it served also as a pledge

of the care and protection of that Being whose presence is every where, and who had hitherto safely conducted their steps; as well as to kindle a foretaste of the happiness that awaited them at Bethlehem. On all these accounts, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."

This short narrative, interesting as it is in itself, suggests to our minds a train of reflections which it would be wrong to resist, and may at this time, by the divine blessing, become profitable to our salvation.

Who, we may be disposed to ask, were these gentile philosophers, that the glorious advent of the blessed God, the divine Emmanuel, should in the first instance be vouchsafed to them? I answer, that it is not for us to scrutinize the counsels of omnipotence; yet judging from the manner and character of God's dealings in general with his creatures, in the disposition of his gifts of providence and grace, (that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong;") recollecting, moreover, the observation

of our Lord, that his heavenly Father had, kept these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes: we may conclude, that among other reasons for his dispensation in the particular case before us, the Almighty meant to humble the pride of the arrogant and sceptical Jew by revealing his Son in the first instance to gentiles and not Jews. These eastern magi had been blest with no written revelation, had had no prophecies to consult. The volume of nature was their only book of religion, but this. they had studied with the best effect; they had improved the light that was in them; whilst those very persons who had been for ages the depositaries of all that was certain, all that was revealed concerning the Almighty and his dealings with mankind, who possessed those very scriptures which spake of Christ, (having read them with the vail upon their hearts, and consequently were unable to understand the true nature of his kingdom,) to these, I say, no star appeared to announce that Lord whom they should obstinately reject.

Let no man then boast of privileges. Let no man vaunt himself in the knowledge he possesses, but seek rather to improve the gift, and bear his faculties, whatever they may be, with meekness of wisdom. Like these Gentile philosophers,

some of you, my brethren, may be poring over the volume of nature, but never once looking through nature up to nature's God: like them you may be skilled in the science of the stars, may know "the sweet influence of Pleiades, or the bands of Orion," and yet may never have seen the star of Bethlehem. You may never yet have come to Christ. You may never yet have enquired "Where is he that is born king of the Jews? Who is the Son of God that I might believe on him?" "What shall I do to be saved?" Such studies, as I before observed, are both valuable and interesting the more they are cultivated, the greater is their legitimate tendency to increase our admiration and love of the great artificer who "hangeth the earth upon nothing." But you will remember that even this knowledge is but secondary, and till the day dawn, and the day-star of a better light arise in your hearts, you are still in darkness, and know not the truth. The wise men doubtless thought all their former knowledge to be foolishness compared with that which they acquired under a straw-built shed at Bethlehem: that holy mystery of "God manifest in the flesh."

Others, on the contrary, may, like the Jewish doctors and scribes, possess, and read, and value those scriptures which testify of Christ,

and who yet know him not. They may possess a kind of vague and indefinite regard for the scriptures, but may possess not with it the key to the true and hidden interpretation thereof. That key is humility, an implicit reliance on the spirit of God-a sense of our natural imbecility and blindness to the things which belong to our peace, the shortsightedness of our unassisted views of God, the spirituality of the divine law, and a fervent desire after increasing light, increasing knowledge. Had the wise men not possessed this child-like docility, they had not come to Christ: had they not been of an humble spirit, they had not fallen down and worshipped him. Had they been offended with the homeliness of what they saw, instead of recognizing in mortal habiliments that child who "is set for the rising and falling of many;" they had not opened their treasures, and presented to him gifts only worthy of a king.

Let us, then, far from being offended with Christ and his doctrine, or the simple terms on which he offers us life and peace, gratefully acknowledge his Gospel to be the power of God to our salvation. Let us offer to him not merely our gold, our frankincense, or our myrrh, but oblations far more precious-"ourselves, our souls, and our bodies, as a reasonable, holy, and